Do Racial Activists Want Whites to Be Afraid of Blacks?

Letting violent offenders roam free suggests that the objective is to stoke fear, loathing, and division in our society.

Years ago I briefly lived near Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, and one of my favorite evening pastimes was go to a hotel bar to listen to its resident jazz pianist. The pianist—who happened to be black—was one of the most elegant and cultivated guys I’ve ever met. If I went early enough, before the crowd arrived, he would share with me his knowledge of music, which was vast.

Occasionally during these conversations, it occurred to me that his black skin was the last thing I noticed about him. He was always dressed beautifully but never garishly. He had a great voice and spoke about music (and other subjects) in a wonderfully eloquent way. While explicating Gerswhin’s “Summertime,” he explained how the harmony expressed the “languid atmosphere of the South in the summertime,” and the phrase really stuck with me.

I mention the Honolulu jazz pianist because—it seems to me—we rarely hear about guys like him in America today. We are far more likely to see a completely different representation of black men—an image that seems to emerge from the culture of Gangsta Rap, which is defined by Wikipedia as the following:

Gangsta rap or gangster rap, initially called reality rap, is a subgenre of rap music that conveys the culture, values, and experiences of urban gangs and street hustlers.

American popular culture has long glorified outlaws. My favorite film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, glorifies a couple of bank robbers who stole the life savings of poor miners from banks in places like Telluride, Colorado.

However, the image of black men that has emerged from Gangsta Rap culture, and the constant apologetics (from Black Lives Matter) for violent, criminal behavior—is much more pathological.

Years ago, at a party in Saint Tropez, I met Sean “Diddy” Combs, and was immediately struck by the thought that he was an appalling role model for black boys and young men.

The greatest victims of this culture are people like Iryna Zarutska, who was recently slaughtered on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina. However, the apologetics for offenders like Decarlos Brown, Jr.—on the grounds that he is “a victim of systemic racism”— is promoting precisely the fear and loathing that racial activists claim they wish to abolish.

According to fellow Substack author, Jeff Childers:

As recently as January, Mr. Brown was arrested but turned loose just days later by Magistrate Teresa Stokes. Magistrate Stokes allowed Brown to sign a written ‘promise to appear’ at future hearings and let him go with no bail. Tellingly, neither the Times nor any other media has confirmed whether Brown ever showed up for his hearings.

How is this kind of judiciary serving anyone, including Mr. Brown himself, who would obviously be far better off incarcerated?

One obvious and odious consequence of letting repeat offenders like him roam around is that it inevitably reinforces the stereotype of black men as aggressive and dangerous. Clearly, it was only a matter of time before Brown’s mugshot turned up in the media.

I wonder: Are decisions like those of Magistrate Teresa Stokes motivated by ideological insanity and pathological sentimentality, or does she (perhaps subconsciously) want to stoke fear and loathing?

Is it possible that Magistrate Stokes (perhaps subconsciously) hates white women and isn’t concerned about the possibility of them being murdered by men like Decarlos Brown, Jr.?

Magistrate Teresa Stokes

What about the political and institutional complex that promoted Teresa Stokes to become a magistrate to make such judicial decisions? Do these key institutional players wish to use her as an instrument to stoke racial division?